Artificial Intelligence and Your Electric Bill

NBC News Radio National Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins us to discuss how the higher use of AI can make your electric bill go up. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So you're electric bill and AI. How are they related.
Let's get to Rory O'Neil, NBCIWS Radio National Correspondent, Morning Rory.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, good morning Steve.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
So artificial intelligence takes more electricity, Well, it does.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
All those computers running twenty four to seven. It soaks
up an awful lot of electricity. And these AI data
centers are popping up all across the country. Look in
some cases they're actually building the data centers with solar
fields and with wind farms. But that's the exception, not
the rule. And what's happening is they're sucking up so

(00:36):
much juice that the utilities now have to order or
produce more electricity, and that's increasing costs for a lot
of Americans, especially on the East Coast. I'm looking at
the kilowatt average cost for Michigan. It's up about three
percent year over year. Some of that may be due
to these AI farms, but in big parts of the

(00:57):
country where're seeing electric bills go up fifteen twenty twenty
five bucks a month because of these AI data centers,
and a lot of consumers are saying, hey, wait a minute,
this is Meta, this is Google, this is Amazon. I
mean these are some of the wealthiest corporations in the world,
and my electric bill is going up. Yeah, doesn't make sense.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
No, that is exactly what I was going to ask.
How do they get away with passing that cost on?

Speaker 4 (01:20):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Well, because essentially they have to pre order the electricity
for the demand that they predict the year ahead. Right,
it's hot today, it's going to be the hottest weather
we have now, well back in January. When they're trying
to predict things, they have to essentially buy enough electricity
for the peak is to peak days and these data
centers just feed into that. And because they have to
bring in more supply, that raises their price ahead of time,

(01:44):
and that's why they have to share the costs with
everyone up and down the line, all.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Right, Roy, So my next obvious question then, besides the
bill going up, is what about the danger of on
a day like today, where you're going to see more
heat and more energy used, the grid goes down.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, right, And that's been an issue since what for
decades now, when was the New York blackout, you know,
or the second one? Yeah, there have been long concerns
about the reliability of our electric grid.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
We see that happening in Texas.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oftentimes, Texas is a special case when it comes to electricity.
Don't get me going, but it is. No, it is
a real concern that as these centers go up, the
grid can't handle it. And look as they're being built.
This is all factored in.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
Saying yes, you know, can this community handle a new
data center, And yes they can handle it, perhaps on
the grid, but again it comes with a higher cost,
and that cost is not paid for exclusively by the
data company.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
So the air conditioner's not working today, kids because some
jackwagon got Tom Cruise to wish them happy birthday. That
is Rory O'Neil, NBC News Radio National correspondent, Thank you.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
That's my new T shirt, all right,